{"version":"1.0","provider_name":"Mathematical 7","provider_url":"https:\/\/mathematical7.com\/m7","title":"Sports and Politics \u2013 George Weah breaks the barrier! - Mathematical 7","type":"rich","width":600,"height":338,"html":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"c2ZMN4ZW9e\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mathematical7.com\/m7\/sports-and-politics-george-weah-breaks-the-barrier\/\">Sports and Politics \u2013 George Weah breaks the barrier!<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/mathematical7.com\/m7\/sports-and-politics-george-weah-breaks-the-barrier\/embed\/#?secret=c2ZMN4ZW9e\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" title=\"&#8220;Sports and Politics \u2013 George Weah breaks the barrier!&#8221; &#8212; Mathematical 7\" data-secret=\"c2ZMN4ZW9e\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\"><\/iframe><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n\/* <![CDATA[ *\/\n\/*! This file is auto-generated *\/\n!function(d,l){\"use strict\";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&\"undefined\"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!\/[^a-zA-Z0-9]\/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),c=new RegExp(\"^https?:$\",\"i\"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display=\"none\";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute(\"style\"),\"height\"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):\"link\"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute(\"src\")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener(\"message\",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll(\"iframe.wp-embedded-content\"),r=0;r<s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute(\"data-secret\"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+=\"#?secret=\"+t,e.setAttribute(\"data-secret\",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:\"ready\",secret:t},\"*\")},!1)))}(window,document);\n\/\/# sourceURL=https:\/\/mathematical7.com\/m7\/wp-includes\/js\/wp-embed.min.js\n\/* ]]> *\/\n<\/script>\n","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/mathematical7.com\/m7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/George_Weah.jpg","thumbnail_width":274,"thumbnail_height":184,"description":"My wish and prayer are that the New Year brings happy times to all the readers of this column. The tail end of 2017 has come with one truly terrific development for sports. George Opong Weah, the first African to be African, European and World\u2019s best football player over a decade ago, has won the elections for the presidency of his country, Liberia. He thus becomes the first African, and probably the second human being, to become president of a country after being an international football player for his country. George Weah\u2019s success in politics is a big deal. It is worth celebrating because it establishes a watershed of some sort, and possibly a turning point in the relationship between government and sports, particularly in the Third World. Before now, the prescription by international sports bodies for sports development is a fundamental divorce of government from sports, making interference (including by government) in the internal affairs of national federations an anathema. In actual practice, however, frosty relationships have developed between national federations and their governments, to the detriment of sport and its development, because the political environment makes interventions by governments inevitable in a classic case of\u00a0\u2018he who pays the piper dictates the tune.\u2019Even in the governance of countries in the Third World, in particular, it is now very obvious that democracy, as practised in the West and applied in Africa, has not worked successfully. The reality is that it has, instead, created and continues to breed \u2018monsters\u2019 as leaders that have become leeches on their people and country, impoverishing them and ruining the foundations of governance laid by pioneer political leaders at Independence and adopting Western prescriptions that have once again turned the people into voluntary \u2018slaves\u2019 and \u2018beggars\u2019 to the West. That\u2019s why from Cape Town in the Southern tip of the continent to Cairo in the north, from Dakar in the West to Mogadishu in the East, the story is the same \u2013 of a continent ravaged and vandalised, of a people brutalized and dehumanized, all through the activities inspired by a Western-style democracy that breeds thieves and vagabonds in government and festers greed and corruption of unimaginable scale and dimension. Now I believe that wholesomely adapting western prescriptions for peculiar political African ailments has been a big mistake. Democracy, as practised in the West, has not worked well in Africa. Instead, it has promoted and bred corruption, impunity, greed and the abuse of power. The humbling question is: which African country has succeeded since granted Independence by their colonizing Western power to entrench good governance structures and practice, and established proper development and progress for their people? The West, through their Centuries of advancement, may have succeeded in separating government from sports as we see in the United States of America and other places, but in the less developed cultures of Africa and Asia, we have witnessed the impossibility of separating government and sports."}